SANTA MONICA, CA – Kaiser’s announcement of a 40 percent increase in profits to $2.1 billion for the first half of this year is the latest in a string of hefty health insurer profit reports that illustrate why Proposition 45’s protections against price gouging are desperately needed, said Consumer Watchdog today.
Proposition 45...

SANTA MONICA, CA – Six health insurance companies financing the No on Proposition 45 committee have donated $37.3 million through June 30, 2014 against the ballot measure to regulate health insurance rates in California, according to campaign finance reports filed recently with the Secretary of State. This is more than three times the $12...

Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog Campaign said that the smaller than usual rate hikes announced by Covered California today are good news for consumers and resulted in part from the presence of Proposition 45 on the ballot, which would require health insurance companies to get state approval before raising rates as they must in 35 other...

SANTA MONICA, CA – The U.S. Senate committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions holds a hearing today to investigate failures in patient safety and the estimated 440,000 deaths that occur in hospitals every year due to preventable medical errors. A landmark California initiative on the November 2014 ballot addresses the patient safety...

Oakland, CA – At a rally and press conference today, Kaiser nurses and consumer advocates exposed the fact that Kaiser Permanente has accumulated a reserve that is $21.7 billion – 1626 percent – more than required by the state, while cutting patient care services and raising premiums on consumers.
The California Nurses...

SANTA MONICA, CA –Health insurance giants Kaiser, Blue Shield, Wellpoint/Anthem Blue Cross, Health Net, United Health and the California Association of Health Plans have now given over $25 million of policyholder money, including nearly $12 million this month, to the campaign against a November 2014 ballot measure that will prevent...

Santa Monica, CA – Anthem Blue Cross and its parent company WellPoint have given $12.9 million to defeat a California ballot initiative that would require health insurance companies to get approval for rate hikes, like the increase of up to 25% Anthem proposes for over 306,000 Californians on April 1. If approved on this November’s...

Santa Monica, CA --- Consumer Watchdog wrote incoming Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson to take issue with “disconcerting statements made by one of your employees, Dr. Paul Phinney, the immediate past President of the California Medical Association, who has maintained that medical negligence and substance abuse among physicians are not significant...

Danville, CA -- Bob Pack, who lost his seven year old daughter and ten year old son on a roadside nine years ago, filed a ballot measure in California today to address the drug overdose and physician accountability issues at the heart of his family’s tragedy.
The Troy and Alana Pack Patient Safety Act, which will require 504,760 valid...

Santa Monica, CA – Health insurance companies will increase rates as high as 24% in July and August for small business customers with more than one million employees, but state regulators currently have no power to reject those increases that can’t be justified. A pending ballot initiative would require health insurance companies to...